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Progressive Labour Party
| membership_year = 574AER | ideology = Social Democracy Progressivism Federalism Socialism | position = Centre-Left/Progressive | colors = | seats1_title = Chamber of Deputies | seats1 = }}The Progressive Labour Party, originally called The Progressive Party, was founded in 542 by the ex-chancellor, Harold Saxon, as a means to get back into Falleen Politics. The fledgling party was joined shortly after its registration by Bernie Sanders, who resigned from the FPP citing radical policy changes and was elected Deputy Federal Chairman shortly afterwards. Party History Starting Out (542-550) The party was preparing to contest its first election in 548. In preparation for such the party held internal Primaries in 548, where Mr. Saxon narrowly defeated Mr. Sanders to clinch the Party nomination. The party performed strongly in the election, bolstered by Mr Saxon's high profile figure and strong debate performances, and garnered 10% of the vote, a record for a new party. During the following term, the party served as a junior partner in the Government, alongside UKIP and the Federal Liberal Party. Mr. Saxon was appointed Foreign Minister, whilst Mr. Sanders was Undersecretary for Budget Reform. While in government, the party proposed several key legislative acts, including Mr. Sanders' Budget Proposal, which addressed the deficit the Empire faced following the war. During this term, Chancellor Farage failed to manage the ongoing Haalsian crisis, losing support amongst the populace and in Parliament. This ultimately forced Farage to resign as Chancellor after the PLP and FLP left the Government. The subsequent Chancellor, Clinton Breckenridge, dissolved Parliament in 550 after 2 weeks of failed coalition negotiations. The Party then held its 550 Primaries, to determine who would be the next Candidate in the upcoming elections. Anthony Blair, Party Chief Whip; Marcus Allerius, Territorial Manager; and William McKinley; were the contenders. Early on, Blair took a lead of nearly 400 delegates, but as the polls closed across the States, no candidate had won a plurality, leading to a Contested Convention. After the first round of voting, Allerius withdrew, and urged his delegates to support McKinley, who won 53% of the ballots, and carried five states. He was declared the Candidate for the forthcoming Elections and subsequently received the support of Blair following the convention. The Breakthrough (550-553) The Party failed to live up to expectations in the 550 election and saw it's vote share fall by 1% as a wave of reactionary Nationalism swept over the Nation. The Party refused to work with the Falleen Nationalist Party which now formed the basis of the new Government and instead formed a strong and warmly received coalition with the Veld National Party. Now that the party formed the official opposition, due to many divides splintering the other parties, the leadership proceeded to push many bills through Parliament. They were able to do this to great success and for the majority of the Parliament were the only party other than UKIP to see legislation successfully clear both Chambers, this was aided by the fact the Government remained wholly inactive and failed to oppose most of the proposals the party submitted. Shortly after this the Emperor removed Chancellor Bonhart for causing instability within the Empire and his Deputy, Andrew Coyne, took over and announced his intent to continue on with the current Government. This was strongly rejected and condemned by Harold Saxon and after a first abortive attempt at a Vote of No Confidence, which failed because of the FPP's insistence it would only vote for a VoNC proposed by UKIP, a secondary one was successfully passed in late 552. In the subsequent 553 Primary the more Centrist candidate, Anthony Blair, triumphed over the party favourite William McKinley to win the nomination in a surprise surge. Official pundits put this down to the intense ground game campaign ran by Mr Blair in key states, his huge advantage in funding and the support of most key figures within the Party. Blair then lead the party into the 553 election where the party added an astonishing 5% to its vote and won its largest ever number of seats. Coalition were already underway before the election results were published to try and form the next Government. The talks came to fruition and a Coalition was formed with the Federal Liberal Party and United Koalition of Imperialist Parties, alongside the formal of the Veld National Party which gave them 52% of the Chamber and allowed a majority Government to be formed. In the following Cabinet discussions the Party was given two key offices of state; Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary, as well as two smaller positions while UKIP's Liam Neeson became Chancellor. The Party also had a large input into the Government Program with over 60% of it being included in the final version. In Government (553-557) The party took a leading role within the new Government and their candidate, Anthony Blair, proved a very outspoken and effective Foreign Minister. He personally negotiated extensions to both the Shihan and Kaarnorian occupations as well as organising for referendums to be held in all 4 occupied zones of Shiha to determine what new nations should be created. He received much plaudits for this work and was also credited with working closely with the other Alliance members, personally addressing them at full meeting 3 times and personally speaking on many notions raised by the Alliance Council. The back and forth over the future of Haalisa ensured that a lot of the Government's focus was dedicated there and the Government received much criticism for the perceived lack of action being undertaken, despite the Referendum being held very soon after the new Government was formed. Mr Blair personally received many personal attacks and calls to stand down as Foreign Minister following the outcry against the Haalsian Referendum. Many reports seemed to indicate that the Foreign Office played at least a partial role in the outcome of the vote however Mr Blair strenuously denied any wrong-doing. Following these accusations his record high approval ratings within the party, which previously had been breaking 75% positive, slumped to barely 20% approval. In 555 Neeson resigned as Chancellor following a huge public outcry against the Government following economic stagnation worldwide. He was replaced by his former Chief Secretary to the Imperial Treasury, Stephen Colbert, who immediately reshuffled the Cabinet. Blair was moved from the Foreign Office to Defence, McKinley decided to stand down and take a break from frontbench politics and Taft was appointed as the new Chief Secretary. This was in part to try and give the Government a fresh face and to try and mitigate the attacks made against Mr Blair following many reports which attempted to smear him for the Haalsia vote. Early in 556 the Party officially announced that it had concluded a merger deal with the Veld National Party. The agreement was that the Veld National Party would merger completely with the party in exchange for a seat on the National Executive and autonomy for the Veld Branch of the party. This deal was widely received as a positive for the party as it successfully managed to bring together the two major left wing parties together on a National level which is expected to help the party in the upcoming elections in 557. Electoral Success (557-561) During the 557 elections the party experienced a great surge in support. Many young people had been gravitating to the party for a while and the failure of many parties to contest the election, included the Federal Liberals and the Falleen Peoples Party, helps the party more than double its support on election day. The party garnered over 42 million votes, more than any single party since Dillion Chastel's electoral hayday in 521AER, which represented more than double their support at the previous election. However this breakthrough was marred with defeat. Despite being the largest party the failure of the FLP to run left the party without any immediate coalition partners and UKIPs election of Nicholas Sarkozy marked a right wing trend within said party. Locked out of power the party was forced to take up Opposition to the right wing Government of UKIP which formed Coalition deals with the Fascist and National Socialist parties of The Alternative and the National Falleen Panaunist Workers' Party. During its time in opposition the party still managed to pass The Falleen Helkar Referendum Act however key electoral promises such as the minimum wage increase which was outright blocked by UKIP. Heading into the 561 election many were skeptical of the party's ability to maintain its dominance and expected a sharp decline in the support for the party. Polling was mixed showing the party set to gain anywhere from 14% to 41% leading to many predicting a Hung Parliament. First Progressive Government (561-Present) The party performed well in the 561 election compared to expectation. Jacques Durand, who had a tough time securing the party's nomination again in the Party Primaries, expressed great happiness at the result and admitted he had expected to win much less support. The Party garnered 28% of the vote which, despite a 5% decline from 557, still made it the largest party in the Chamber by roughly 50 seats. The party swiftly formed a Coalition with the resurgent Federal Liberal Party, which had contested this election and had been part of the reason many questioned the ability of the party to maintain their level of support, and the Falleen Minorities Party which gave them a dominating 49% of the Chamber. The Coalition also received the pledged support of the Liberal Socialist Workers Party which gave the Government a slim majority in the Parliament, this majority was further reinforced by the failure of UKIP and the NFPWP to renew their electoral alliance following a huge surge in the latter's support. Shortly after the Government was welcomed into office by the Imperial Office and set about forming their first ever cabinet. After short discussions it was agreed that the Party would take the positions of; Chief Secretary to the Imperial Treasury, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary, while the FLP would take up the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary portfolios and the FMP took over as Secretary to the Overseas Territories. Party Leadership Party Primaries Electoral Records Category:The Imperial Constitution